Top

Doctor Who’s ‘Next’ generation

Thursday, December 18, 2008 by

Dervla Kirwan and her "knight in shining armour"

Dervla Kirwan and her "knight in shining armour"

Thursday 18 December 2008, and a pointedly low key press launch for Doctor Who‘s Christmas episode, ‘The Next Doctor’ held at London’s Soho Hotel.

Jane Tranter, the BBC’s outgoing Head of Drama, warned the assembled: “‘The Next Doctor’ – for the next 60 minutes or so, make of that what you like. And I’m absolutely not going to tell you anything. But by the time you’ve got to the end, you’ve got to promise not to tell anyone else what to make of that. The ability of Doctor Who is to ask big questions and keep everybody guessing. Please enter into the spirit of that, and allow everyone to keep asking questions”.

So I will. Although I can’t help but squeal that all the previous TV Doctors get a fleeting cameo. That’s unrelated to the main plot, though.

With Tranter set to move to LA, she reflected on what the Doctor Who team has achieved – and the future.

“We’re coming to the end of an era with the show,” she said. “Or as I like to say, the end of the beginning. The next generation are here: Steven Moffat, Piers Wenger and Ben Stephenson. They will not disappoint you – that much I can absolutely promise. I can’t wait for the fifth series to begin, and neither can they. I can literally feel their feet moving even as they’re sitting here; as they wait, running on the spot, waiting to be unleashed. There are exciting times ahead…”

Comments

5 Responses to “Doctor Who’s ‘Next’ generation”

  1. Graeme Robertson on December 19th, 2008 8:57 am

    Who’s Ben Stephenson? Have I missed something?

  2. Graham Kibble-White on December 19th, 2008 10:37 am

    He’s Jane Tranter’s successor at the BBC.

  3. Robert Green on December 19th, 2008 12:06 pm

    I was enjoying this piece on the Xmas episode. . . but – did you run out of time. . . ? It seems to just stop short. No actual summary of The Next Doctor?!! Didn’t necessarily want spoilers, just an indication of what you thought of the episode would have been nice – us fans have Bat like instincts on how the ep will shape up even without spoilers. . . .

  4. Graham Kibble-White on December 19th, 2008 3:40 pm

    Hi Robert. I kind of have a policy about press launches now, in that I’m more comfortable reporting the nuts and bolts than offering an opinion. In many cases I might have done interviews with cast or whatever for publication – and if I’ve really hated the show, and said so on here, then things just get a bit uncomfortable.

    That said, if I am really enthusiastic about something, I will generally drop that in, cos no-one’s going to have a problem with that, right?

    Which kind of paints me into a corner, and makes it seem like I didn’t like ‘The Next Doctor’, when in fact I did. I’d score it three satsumas out of five. The ending is really lovely.

  5. Ljones on December 25th, 2008 8:35 pm

    >all the previous TV Doctors get a fleeting cameo.

    Just finished watching dr who, and it really was fleeting – a fuzzy picture projected on a wall for a few seconds. Must admit I was quite dissapointed!

    Ljones

Bottom